THE GREAT SHRIKE, OR BUTCHER-BIRD. 
butcher-bird give its master warning of the approach of the 
hawk, but informs him also of what species it is. It has been 
observed that, should the aerial visitor happen to be a 
goshawk, the shrike will scream most lustily, and make every 
attempt to escape. If, however, it happens to be a kite or 
buzzard, it will not exhibit half so much fear, and thus, with- 
out moving from the hut, the degree of anxiety exhibited by 
his little watch-bird will give the falconer some information 
what kind of hawk is approaching. 
The butcher-bird is found throughout Europe, and remains 
in the forests through the summer; but as the trees grow 
leafless, and prey scanty, it has no objection to approach the 
abodes of man. Its nest, which is a substantial building, 
warmly lined with feathers and down, is usually built in a 
solitary tree or thick bush, and from four to six eggs, of a 
greyish white spotted with pale olive-green, are laid at each 
sitting. It is by no means a large bird ;• its length from beak 
to tail is not more than ten inches, and it weighs but two 
ounces. The bill is elongated, strong, straight and compressed, 
with the tip of the upper mandible more or less hooked, and 
armed on each side with a tooth. The base of the bill is 
usually as high as broad. The wings are of moderate size, 
sometimes pointed, sometimes rounded. The tail is long and 
rounded. 
The term “ butcher ” would seem to be applied to this bird 
not so much on account of its sanguinary nature as from its 
singular mode of disposing of the carcasses of its prey. It 
may be as well, perhaps, to describe, in the first place, how this 
feathered butcher obtains the said carcasses. Audubon shall 
tell you. “ This valiant little warrior possesses the faculty of 
imitating the notes of other birds, especially such as are indi- 
cative of pain. Thus it will often imitate the cries of sparrows 
and other small birds, so as to make you believe you hear them 
screaming in the claws of a hawk ; and I strongly suspect this 
is done for the purpose of inducing others to come out from 
their coverts to the rescue of their suffering brethren. On 
several occasions I have seen it in the act of screaming in this 
manner, when it would suddenly dart from its perch into a 
thicket, from which there would immediately issue the real 
cries of a bird which it had seized. On the banks of the 
Mississippi, I saw one which, for several days in succession, 
had regularly taken its stand on the top of a small tree, where 
it from time to time imitated the cries of the swamp and song 
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